Thomas Hart Benton

Here is a terrific painting by the 20C American artist, Thomas Hart Benton. The painting is called The Sources of Country Music and dates from 1975. It was part of a grand scheme of murals that Benton produced for the Country Music Hall of Fame in Nashville.

Benton isn’t very well known outside America. His regionalist and figurative style of painting lost out to abstract expressionism in the post-WW2 battle for cultural supremacy.

Benton’s style is overblown for most modern tastes. However, I love the sense of emotional drama. You can feel the paintings in the same way that country and western songs are felt.